Kamil Stoch wins men's large hill ski jumping gold!

Kamil Stoch doesn’t look to have the distance of Kasai, has he done enough? Dramatic pause! He has! Just! The Pole wins by 75cm and the crowd sigh as the people’s favourite, 40-year-old Noriaki Kasai, has to settle for silver. Peter Prevc takes bronze.

Updated at 7.45pm GMT

7.41pm GMT

Men's ski jumping – new leader!

Severin Freund leaps to second place, his distance a couple of metres shy of Prevc. Th 40-year-old Kasai is next up, the penultimate jumper ... it looks perfect! He’s first!! Just Stoch to come ...

Updated at 7.45pm GMT

7.38pm GMT

Men's ski jumping – new leader!

Peter Prevc of Slovenia puts in a very clean jump and landing and it’s enough to go top of the leaderboard! 274.8 the mark to beat. Three to come.

7.36pm GMT

Men's ski jumping – new leader!

Norwegian Anders Fannemel goes long to lead with 263.4. Five jumpers to go...

7.30pm GMT

Marinus Kraus leads the way

So here come the final ten jumpers. Kraus leads with 257.4 but expect that score to be toppled as the leaders from the first round go for gold.

7.27pm GMT

Men's ski jumping final – business time

The final ten jumpers now, it’s about to get interesting. Here’s an appropriately titled programme with an appropriately titled song ...

Updated at 7.28pm GMT

7.23pm GMT

Japan's Noriaki Kasai soars through the air during the first round of the men's ski jumping large hill. The 40-year-old sits in second place going into the final jump. Photograph: DOMINIC EBENBICHLER/REUTERS

7.21pm GMT

Men's ski jumping final

Marinus Kraus of Germany now leads but with of a total score of 257.4 he looks unlikely to be in with a shout of a medal. A score of 270 will realistically be required to challenge.

7.17pm GMT

Men's ice hockey update

Switzerland have beaten Czech Republic 1-0, which will be good enough for second place in their group.

7.15pm GMT

Local hero Dimitry Vasilliev (pictured crashing below) nails his final jump and it’s the longest of the competition so far, a giant 144.5m. The crowd go crazy but his first round mess of a landing has unfortunately left him outside the medals.

7.12pm GMT

Poland's Kamil Stoch reacts in the large hill ski jumping finish area after the first round. He's chuffed. Photograph: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images

7.10pm GMT

Men's ski jumping final has begun

The competitors will jump in reverse order with leader Kamil Stoch the last to go. The score from the first jump is carried over and added to the jump in the final, so it is only the top 10-15 that will have a realistic shot at a medal.

Stoch made 143.4 points in his first jump, so gold is going to require well over 250 points. After five jumpers of the 30, Simon Ammann of Switzerland currently leads with 239.2.

7.01pm GMT

Light entertainment

“While we are waiting for the second round, enjoy the world record of 246.5 meters,” emails Christian Busæt. “Unfortunately there’s no ski flying during the Olympics.”

6.59pm GMT

Ski jumping rules

While we are waiting for the final to get underway, here’s exactly what’s going on:

The rules for distance points:

A jump to the K-Point obtains 60 points. For jumps shorter or longer than the K-Point, points are either subtracted or added to determine the final distance point calculation. Every metre above or below the metre value will be added or reduced by 1.8 points for large hills and 2 points for normal hills. The distance to be awarded is measured form the edge of the take-off to the athlete’s landing point on the slope, and is measured in increments of 0.5 metres.

And here are the rather more complicated rules for style points:

For a perfect jump an athlete can obtain 20 points as a maximum for a single jump. The jumping judges (five) deduct points for faults during flight, landing and outrun and subsequently, the highest and the lowest judging score is disregarded. Maximum point deduction for faults during flight is 5.0 points, during landing phase 5.0 points and out-run 7.0 points.

Example: For a jump of 125 metres on the large hill (LH), distance points are calculated as:

60.0 + (125-120) x 1.8 = 60.0 + 5x1.8 = 60.0 +9.0 =69.0

For style points: the judges score of 17.0 / 18.0 /18.5 / 19.0 / 20.0 – with the elimination of the lowest (17.0) and the highest (20.0) gives a total of 55,5 style points (18.0/18.5/19.0).

Ski jumping 1st round completed

Well that is why they leave the best jumpers until last – great drama! In the final jump Poland’s Kamil Stoch equals Kasai’s distance of 139m but gains points for style and for lack of wind assistance to top the leaderboard. Stoch will jump last in the final.

6.42pm GMT

New ski jumping leader

Germany’s Severin Freund puts in a monster leap! It’s the furthest so far, good marks for style and he’s on top of the leaderboard, for now. Fourty-year-old Noriaki Kasai is next ... and that might be even bigger! It is! Japan’s Kasai now leads.

6.38pm GMT

Small hill world champ Anders Bardal gets good marks for style but lacks the distance – perhaps because this is a large hill – and can only slot into 13th. Five of the 50 jumpers to come.

6.35pm GMT

Hello!

Nine more remain in the ski jumping 1st round, and here’s the first ... Thomas Diethart – and despite the wind behind him he is unable to make the sufficient distance and he scores 109.1 to be placed 25th.

6.26pm GMT

Ciao!

The ski jumping is just starting to get interesting, but sadly at this point I’m going to sign off and let some fresh fingers bring you the large thrills on the large hill. Thanks, and bye!

6.18pm GMT

For a politician, the plus side of going to the Olympics is that some voters might perceive that a bit of athletic stardust has rubbed off on you. The downside is that you can find yourself stuck in conversations like this:

German interior and sports minister Thomas de Maiziere watches the ski jumping large hill final in the company of some comically-attired compatriots at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. Photograph: Matthias Schrader/AP

6.15pm GMT

Ski jumping update

We are halfway through this first round, and so far I’ve learned that 50 jumps are a lot of jumps. It might have helped to intersperse the big names throughout the 50, rather than leaving them all until the end, which does somewhat reduce the interest level in the early stages. Anyway, Finland’s Anssi Koivuranta leads with a 131.5m, 130.9-point effort.

6.09pm GMT

Curling – final update I promise

Just to say that in the women’s curling Denmark did indeed beat China, 9-6, but Sweden came back to beat the USA 7-6, putting them second behind Canada in the standings, with China, Britain and Switzerland joint third. Britain are still to play Denmark (who are ninth) and Russia (6th), both on Monday. If they win both matches they will qualify for the semi-finals, as one of China or Switzerland, who play each other, must lose.

5.57pm GMT

A very pleasant photograph

This is from another ski jumping event entirely, indeed it’s just the practice session for the other ski jumping event, but it did make for a very lovely picture I’m sure you’ll agree.

Ski jumping: it's on

They’re about to get under way on the large hill. The 50 competitiors will jump in reverse order by World Cup rankings. All but the top 10 had to pre-qualify yesterday.

5.42pm GMT

In the women’s Curling standings, Canada have qualified with a 100% record after seven games. China lie second, level with Sweden, but both are currently losing and if they fail to pull their games round, they would find themselves tied with Britain and Switzerland, who have won four and lost three of their seven.

5.40pm GMT

Curling latest

Two of the four 3pm starts have now finished, with Canada beating Russia 5-3 and Britain losing 6-8 to Switzerland. In the other two, USA lead Sweden 6-5, and Denmark lead China 8-6.

5.38pm GMT

The ski jumping has been delayed by quarter of an hour to 5.45pm.

5.32pm GMT

… meanwhile the rest of the team slummed it in economy. Poor Aimee Fuller won’t thank fellow snowboarder Jamie Nicholls for posting this:

5.30pm GMT

What an Olympic medal gets you

Several Team GB athletes returned to the UK today. Jenny Jones, who won a bronze in the snowboard slopestyle, got upgraded to first class …

5.24pm GMT

The future of the ski jumping is, in so many ways, up in the air after this came in from Reuters:

The trial round for the Olympic men’s large hill ski jumping competition was canceled on Saturday due to high winds, officials said. It was not immediately clear whether the first round of the competition would start at 5.30pm GMT as scheduled.

Today's winners and losers

The news headlines

The medalists

Russia’s Alexander Tretiakov won gold in the men’s skeleton, with Latvia’s Martins Dukurs second and Matthew Antoine grabbing bronze for the USA.

The USA switched suits but still suffered in the speed skating. In the men’s 1500m, Zbignew Brodka won gold for Poland, beating Holland’s Koen Verweij by a margin of 0.003sec, with Canada’s Denny Morrison third.

Anna Fenninger won the women’s Super-G for Austria, with her compatriot Nicole Hosp third and Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Reisch, already winner of the women’s super combined, scooping silver.

A dramatic women’s cross-country relay was won by Sweden ahead of Finland and Germany.

Victor An and Vladimir Grigorev secured a Russian one-two in the men’s 1,000m short track speed skating. Sjinkie Knegt took bronze for the Netherlands.

Still to come today

Some ice hockey matches have just started, some women’s curling will soon end, but there’s only one more medal to be decided: the men’s large hill ski jumping. The first round will start at 5.30pm GMT, and the final about an hour later.

5.14pm GMT

Russia's Victor An and Vladimir Grigorev celebrate winning the gold and silver medals in the men's short track 1000m at the Sochi Winter Olympics. Photograph: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images

Here’s Reuters on Russia’s gold-medal glory in the short-track skating:

As if they were not suffering enough with their Sochi short-track troubles, South Korea had to endure their former skater An Hyun-Soo striking gold with a new name under a new flag on Saturday as newly-Russian Viktor An triumphed in the 1,000 metres.

Two years after switching allegiances, the 28-year-old has transformed Russia from a short-track also-run nation into once celebrating their first three Olympic medals after training-mate Vladimir Grigorev took silver on Saturday to add to An’s bronze in the 1500m.

The victory was especially sweet for An, who saw it as a vindication of his defection after being passed over by South Korea for a spot at the 2010 Vancouver Games, following a knee injury in 2008 that nearly ended his career.

“I wanted to train in the best possible environment and I proved my decision was not wrong,” said An, who is regarded as one of the greatest short track speed skaters of all time.

An collapsed to his knees, kissing the ice and shedding tears of joy, after reclaiming the title he won for South Korea in Turin eight years ago to become the first man to win four Olympic gold medals in short track.

“I spent the last eight years working toward this gold medal and so many things happened along the way so that’s why I cried,” Ahn, his hair dyed orange red, told reporters. “At first my mind was going blank. It was unbelievable.”

Ahn hugged his former countrymen before celebrating with Grigorev. “We compete against each other for the medal but not against each other personally,” he said.

5.09pm GMT

Gold for Lizzie Yarnold!

Yes, this is old news. The newer news is that she now has the actual medal. Here’s the ubiquitous biting-the-medal shot:

Lizzie Yarnold with the Gold medal she won in the Women's Skeleton at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games. Photograph: David Davies/PA

4.59pm GMT

Skeleton: gold for Russia, silver for Latvia, bronze for the USA

The only big mover of that final round was America’s John Daly, fourth after the third round and aiming for a medal, who had a disastrous final slide and ended up 15th. So it’s gold for Tretiakov, silver for Martins Dukurs of Latvia, and bronze for America’s Matthew Antoine – the top three after heat one, still there at the end.

Updated at 4.59pm GMT

4.57pm GMT

Skeleton gold for Russia's Alexander Tretiakov!

Tretiakov’s lead was too good – and he extended it anyway, with a final run of 56.02sec!

4.55pm GMT

Martins Dukurs storms into first place!

A brilliant run of 56.29sec from Martins Dukurs is the best of this fourth round so far – but will it be enough to hold of Russia’s Alexander Tretiakov? We’re about to find out …

4.53pm GMT

Yes he can!

Matthew Antoine storms down the track in 56.73, one hundredth of a second faster than Tomass Dukurs, leads the field with two to go and will certainly get a medal (almost certainly bronze).

4.52pm GMT

Skeleton: just three to go

And Latvia’s Tomass Dukurs currently leads ahead of Russia’s Sergei Chudinov and Nikita Tregybov. Can America’s Matthew Antoine beat him and climb onto the podium?

4.45pm GMT

Skeleton latest

Just five sliders to go, and Britain’s Kristan Bromley will finish in the top 10, lying as he is in third. Very well done that man. The medals will be decided in the next 10 minutes or so.